Here's their website again. It may be a bit off the beaten path, but there's a reason why people are flocking to it, especially since this outfit is winning awards all over the country with their barbecue. Check 'em out!!
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Return to Pigs R Us
Friday, February 01, 2008
DIRTY HARRY is on the Sleuth channel right now
Sometimes on the playground when I was a kid, we would do imitations of "Dirty" Harry's speech. Yeah, it was a weird childhood...
In spite of his methods, you had to respect Inspector Callahan for how incorruptible he was. In his world there was absolute good and real evil, and the law didn't have to come in the way of that.
Does anyone else remember that song about "Dirty" Harry that was big for awhile, about 25 years ago? I heard it on the radio a bunch of times: part of it was Clint Eastwood's classic line from Sudden Impact: "Go ahead, make my day." That was about the same time that they were making songs of just about everything else, from the Three Stooges ("The Curly Shuffle") to that lady from the Wendy's commercials who asked "Where's the beef?"
What kind of actors do we have anymore who are anything like Clint Eastwood? Or Steve McQueen or Lee Marvin, or a lot of those other guys? I don't know if my own generation has anyone like that. Darn shame...
Those insane courses on Wii Sports: Golf
How did we do?
Let's put it this way: if Robert Trent Jones ever designed a golf course as evil as the ones on Wii Sports: Golf, he would have probably been dragged out onto the fairway and shot.
We were doing pretty good until the ninth hole. If you've played Golf on Wii Sports you probably know which one I'm about to talk about: it's that one where the hole is in the middle of a rocky island, that you have to drive the ball onto. Dad and I both tried our darndest to get it onto the green... but it's impossible! The ball either goes into the water, or it ricochets off the cliff-side and then goes into the water. By the time each of us had hit +12 on the hole the game told us to "Give Up".
Somewhere at Nintendo Headquarters in Japan, some smart-alecy game programmer is no doubt laughing at his supposed cleverness for creating the golfing equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru "no-win" scenario.
Okay so anyone else who has this game: how the heck do we get the ball over the water and onto that tiny island??
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Four minutes after LOST Season 4 premiere ...
Who would have thought that Jacob lives in a mobile home? :-P
Seriously though, it built extremely well on where things left off with "Through the Looking Glass". This story is moving along at a very nice pace toward what looks to be rather forbidding territory.
Creepiest line of the show: "Are they still alive?"
I'm gonna have to watch this again, 'cuz there was so much to absorb.
EDIT 10:18 p.m. EST: Oh yeah, here's the John Locke music video from last night set to Patsy Cline's "Crazy"...
It's that LOST "Bad to the Bone" promo with Sawyer!
It's "The Beginning of the End" as LOST returns tonight
But as everyone who watched the mind-blowing "Through the Looking Glass" knows by now, that may not necessarily turn out to be a good thing.
Eight months later, and the Lost Season 3 finale is still one that has folks reeling in disbelief.
And now, tonight, Lost is back.
Season 4 kicks off with "The Beginning of the End", which is said to be a Hurley-centric episode (so the season premieres in their order have gone pilot episode, Jack, Jack... now Hurley?! Ooh-kay...).
This is the first of eight episodes that were finished before the Writers Guild of America strike. From here on until Lost's sixth and final season, there are supposed to be sixteen episodes per season. I've heard rumors that if the strike ends soon, that they might still get their quota in for this season, which would be good. If not, might as well enjoy Lost while we got it.
And from the looks of it, this is promising to be an amazing season from the getgo. Check out the picture on the right: that's Jeremy Davies who's now one of the new faces in the main cast. You might know Davies from Saving Private Ryan and Solaris (I first remember him from Twister). He's playing Daniel Faraday: apparently one of the people who are arriving from Naomi's boat. Also coming to the Island are Rebecca Mader, Jeff Fahey (if you ever saw The Lawnmower Man then you'll know this guy), Ken Leung (who's appeared in everything from Rush Hour to The Sopranos), and in continuing with the strange affinity that Lost has for hiring actors from HBO's prison drama Oz, Lance Reddick will be playing the sinisterly-named Matthew Abbadon ("Destruction" in Hebrew).
By the way, if you haven't already, you might want to check out the Lost: Missing Pieces "mobisodes". These are short vignettes from the Lost story that ABC has been releasing on cellphones (and then on the web) for the past three months or so. The final one that came out a few days ago, "So It Begins", is a very startling bit of Lost lore if you've been watching from the beginning. And judging by the cast list, it may or may not have some relevance for tonight's episode.
"The Beginning of the End", the Season 4 premiere of Lost, starts at 9 p.m. EST tonight on ABC.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
I've got one word that describes this "debate" going on right now from the Reagan Library ...
(Only at the last minute did I change that word before posting from something else.)
And some of you still think this is a free country with a legitimate press?
Some of you even dare think that these are the people that we should give our prayers and support to?
Tonight Lisa and I watched The Remains of the Day on our DVD player. Probably Anthony Hopkins's finest film role ever. That line he says toward the end has never failed to haunt me...
"I'm sorry sir, I was too busy serving to listen to the speeches."
Some of us do listen to the speeches, regardless of how many other people are too damned occupied with American Idol or Britney Spears's underwear or with the dog-and-pony show that the mainstream media and the party bigwigs and the power-mongers in our own government parade in front of us... as if those things really matter.
Yeah, some of us are listening. And we know damned well what's going on with this country. What America is turning into.
I'm not just angry because Ron Paul is being treated so unfairly. I would be this pissed-off if any candidate was being treated this way by supposedly "objective" journalists. Because I'd rather every candidate be allowed equal opportunity to come to the table and make their case, and let the chips fall where they may. Let us decide which one we'd rather listen to most. Anything less than that is an insult to the American people (yah like these bastitches care about whether they insult us or not).
Four years ago I posted my now-infamous list of "People Who Should Be Shot When the Revolution Comes". I'm thinking of amending it in the near future. Perhaps I should put "Partisan Pathetic Excuses for Journalists" on the revised list? I mean, the threat of assassination can work wonders...
New PRINCE CASPIAN poster
So now she and everyone else gets to check him out too...
Chad races 2 miles, eats 12 donuts and runs back. Did he hurl?!?

Here's the deal: start at the bell tower on N.C. State's campus, run 2 miles to the nearest Krispy Kreme donut shop, devour a dozen original glazed donuts, and then race back to the bell tower. All within the span of one hour.
As you can no doubt imagine, people blow chunks all over the place on the return leg of this oxymoronic endurance test.
So, how did Chad do? Could he go the distance without adding his own decoration to the landscape? Here is his full report on this year's Krispy Kreme Challenge. And you can also read about what happened from Chad's friend Ashley, who not only ran but also has gory full-color pictures chronicling the gastrointestinal aftermath.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
LOST Season 4 poster
Less than 48 hours now before Lost returns. Only one other television series in my entire life had had me this excited about a new season. Yeah I've never been much of a teevee person at all. It's the story that compels me to watch something. And they don't get any more compelling than Lost has become.
Lisa and I have been watching the Season 3 DVD set for the past several days. Tonight we saw "Greatest Hits", which was this past season's penultimate episode. Now we can either watch "Through the Looking Glass" from the DVD or the special "enhanced version" that ABC will be broadcasting tomorrow night with Pop-up Video-style "factoids" on-screen. Might be worth DVR-ing that one, in case there's some new tidbits of info.
Today's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us ...
It's no joke. Danny, Donnie, Joe, Jon, and Jordan are coming back.
If Lisa even hints at wanting me to take her to a concert on their new tour, so help me I will tie her up and throw her into a dark bathroom until the band has left town. A husband should want to do whatever makes his wife happy, but this would be undeniable mental cruelty.
Oh well, might as well "celebrate" with one of the New Kids' better music videos...
I'll never do business with Amazon again
...but to waste my valuable time with a "customer service representative" who is talking to me from another country and can not speak discernible English at all, when there are plenty of people in America who could both use a job and would not be an insult to the intelligence of Amazon's customers as their "outsourced help", is the final straw.
Most AWESOME video game intro sequence EVER!
I can already tell that Rock Band is going to be one of our favorite video games for a long while to come: we're having a blast with it! Lisa is getting really good on drums, and for once I'm not getting booed off stage while singing ("Don't Fear the Reaper" is my best song so far). We haven't done anything with the guitar yet. I'm gonna study the instructions some more, figure out just what the heck we're doing here before we start really jamming with Rock Band.
And if you've ever played this before, you already know something: that Rock Band has the most mind-blowing title sequence for a video game... probably in the history of anything. Here it is courtesy of YouTube.
And turn up your speakers. Turn them way up!
EDIT 9:34 p.m. EST: I just found out that this song is called "Highway Star" by the legendary English hard rock band Deep Purple. They were once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as being "the loudest band in the world". And supposedly those are the band members as they appeared in the 1970s who are riding atop those vehicles.
Want your own DHARMA food for when LOST returns this week?
But if you're wanting to have DHARMA Initiative food on hand for the big season premiere of Lost a little over 48 hours from now, here ya go: Max Pictures has DHARMA labels for just about everything you'd need: DHARMA Chili, DHARMA Mini-Chocolates, DHARMA Water, and even DHARMA Vodka for those moments when you need to get all good and sloshed like Desmond! Great work there guys :-)
Monday, January 28, 2008
The REAL State of the Union: America is dying
As always, he won't dare speak the truth about the condition of this country to the American people. Too much "legacy" is at stake to do anything other than to BS people as he's done throughout his term.
So it falls to me to go where most politicians, the mainstream press, the partisan sycophants, and the useful idiots fear to tread, and lay down the real smack on the true state of the union...
- You will hear Bush tonight repeat that "America is strong" or that "our union is strong". This is a damned lie. The truth of the matter is, America is not only not strong, America is dying. In fact, America may be dead and beyond resuscitation already.
- We have precious little industrial infrastructure left. Bush and his buddies have sent most of it overseas.
- We are being overwhelmed with illegal aliens. There's no way in Hell that Bush will touch upon that one.
- Our economy stands upon the edge of a knife. That Bush and Congress are flooding it with money that doesn't even really exist anyway demonstrates the "wisdom" that our "brilliant leaders" have been endowed with. It's almost enough to make one wonder if they want to bring about this country's financial collapse.
- We continue to be mired in meaningless wars overseas that have nothing to do with legitimate American interests. All that we will have to show for them are thousands of armed forces personnel dead, many more maimed either physically or mentally and almost certainly emotionally also.
- We no longer have a free press in this country. One need only look at how Fox News has blatantly sought to manipulate the current presidential election to know this. The only true "fair and balanced" coverage you will find these days will not be on cable television, but from independent outlets... and even then, you're supposed to judge for yourself without having some big company judge for you.
- The American political process is completely bankrupt and unable to produce sincere, legitimate leadership. By that I mean individuals who seriously want to serve others, instead of wanting to only exploit government and the power that comes with it. That we have a country where "anyone can grow up to be President" is now a damned lie. The reality of it is, you only can get elected if the party bigwigs determine that they can use you in their schemes enough to give you enough backing to run for office. And then when you win, you belong to them. The system does not like people with honest principles taking a stab at things. It has a nasty tendency to destroy those who try.
- There is no more "rule of law" per the Constitution. We no longer have a government "of the people, by the people and for the people". We now have government that exists for sake of government. It is now the rule of force. We live at the peace of the gun. This is not government as the Founding Fathers intended for it to be at all. Why should any of us feel morally bound to be loyal to this government, then? Why should any of us be asked to potentially give their lives for this government? Because I can't fin any reason either per moral conscience or per studies of scripture that mandates this in the least bit. I'm loyal to the Constitution. I'm not loyal to men who would destroy the Constitution.
- This country is becoming a fascist state, and we all know it. But damned few of us are willing to admit it.
As sometimes happens on this blog, I might watch the address tonight, with my back to the TV so that I can "tune in" without the distracting visuals, and post my thoughts about it live.
LEGO building blocks are 50 years old today!
And since then there have been enough LEGO bricks manufactured that they could build ten towers stretching from the Earth to the Moon.
Celebrate LEGO's anniversary by finding more amazing facts about the classic toy here.
By the way, I will admit to being a life-long LEGO Maniac. When I was a kid I had so many LEGO bricks, that my Mom gave me this big suitcase to put them all in. I still have it too. My most recent LEGO purchase was the new Indiana Jones "motorcycle chase" set that I got at the LEGO Outlet at Discover Mills Mall near Atlanta a month ago. Probably my favorite LEGO model is a tie between the Millennium Falcon (the second version) and the AT-AT from the Star Wars series.
Now if only Lisa would let me get the big Millennium Falcon LEGO set - the one that costs five hundred bucks - I would be in Nirvana :-)
Anyhoo... Happy Birthday LEGO!